


The City that Never Sleeps

by tyCrack



Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: A little bit of blood, Alternate Universe - College/University, Angst, Dreaming, Dreams vs. Reality, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Hanahaki Disease, Lee Taeyong is Whipped, M/M, Pretty Nakamoto Yuta, True Love, Unrequited Love, alternate universe colliding with canon, major character death kind of?
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-22
Updated: 2020-12-22
Packaged: 2021-03-11 02:20:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,319
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28227552
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tyCrack/pseuds/tyCrack
Summary: All Taeyong wanted was to get a good night sleep. To be honest, his family genes are to blame for whatever happens next.
Relationships: Lee Taeyong/Nakamoto Yuta, YuTae - Relationship
Comments: 2
Kudos: 17





	The City that Never Sleeps

**Author's Note:**

> hiii so this is something I wrote for my english final, it was originally about my own experiences but ty and yuta just seemed to fit well on this story. idk why my professor wanted us to write about love but here it is a 1300 word vomit that i did in 2 hours

The room is darkly lit by purple LED lights and the only sound that can be heard is the awful trap music that permeated through the wall that he shares with his next-door neighbor. Apart from that it was a quiet Thursday night, a peculiar affair from his usual. Taeyong normally has an assignment due at midnight or has plans for a night out with friends but when the weather turned sour all he could think about was being wrapped up in his warm comforter and being lulled into sleep by raindrops. He stretches languidly on his combined twin XL mattress and closes his eyes, hoping to finally relax his thoughts and have a proper sleep after a hectic week. His mind wanders for a moment, from thinking through his ambitions to slightly being awoken by the sound of closing doors, he tosses and turns for a good hour until sleep finally befalls on him.

From a young age, Taeyong has learned the skill of lucid dreaming. It might have been inherent through his family because even his sister has told him about her own wild adventures in sleep. However, it can be hard to distinguish between reality and dreams sometimes as some have intertwined before. Amidst the tangled mess of scenes and images, he comes across a building and a face.

_Pretty._

He wonders where he has seen him before, but he couldn’t place the face of the person standing in front of him.

“Hey! Are you okay? I’ve been calling your name like a hundred times,” the guy with a ginger-dyed hair looks like he is starting to get annoyed. He feels panic creeping up on him. He doesn’t know the name of the stranger, but he feels so familiar like they have years of history behind them.

Suddenly, the pretty boy’s facade was broken by a fit of laughter. The lips he was biting before forms into a wide smile and his once intimidating expression turns into the brightest face he has ever seen. Feeling flustered and embarrassment painting his ears red, he hits his arm jokingly,

“Oh my God stop laughing at me!”

“I’m sorry but you look so cute! You looked like I just kicked your puppy or something,” he teases.

“Yuta, I swear to God I will tell one of the managers that you skipped practice last time if you don’t stop,” he threatens. That seemingly brought a halt to his boisterous laughter and a halt to his own thoughts.

_Yuta? That’s your name_

“Of course, that’s my name, silly.” He slings his arm around his and messes with his hair.

“Did you just forget the name of your best friend of 7 years?!” he looks apprehended but with a telling smirk he knows that he was just kidding.

“Keep your voice down, there are people around!” He shushes him with a glare, checking their surroundings as other people eye them with a judgmental expression.

Having someone this close should ring all the alarms in his head about the warnings of ‘stranger danger.’ Instead of feeling alarmed, however, he feels some sort of fondness towards him. It may be the way he laughed with his entire body or the way his chest constricts slightly because he is looking directly into his eyes that has convinced him that maybe Yuta is right, maybe they really have been best friends for years. Falling into his character is as easy as breathing, just as easy as falling in love with him.

He observes that underneath all of Yuta’s boyish charms and charismatic attitude, there is a quiet innocence in him. They have decided to visit a park today and Taeyong can’t help but smile at the way Yuta looks at the plants and animals with wonder.

He excitedly darts between trees and exclaims, “I have never touched a tree this smooth.”

Or when he sees a squirrel hiding behind a cactus, he tries to feed it with an acorn. The fondness he felt when they met for the first time, or at least the first time for him, has blossomed into a greater warmth. He doesn’t recall how this feeling formed, or when, all he knows is that it has always been planted in him.

“Do you know what I want to do now?” Yuta thinks thoughtfully.

“I want to go all the way up there and take a nap,” pointing to a tree on top of a hill.

“Last one to get there buys dinner!” he shouts and sprints like his life depended on it. Taeyong knows that even with the head-start he can’t win against Yuta who has played soccer for 11 years of his life.

_How do I know that?_

When he gets there, he spots Yuta with his hands behind his head, mesmerized by the setting sun.

_“Pretty.”_

Yuta echoes his own sentiments. The sky looked like it was dipped in gold, with hues of purple and pink. It is the most beautiful sunset he has ever seen. It feels like a dream within a dream, time seemingly slows down as the scenery turns hazy. He can’t help but stare, not at the dawning of the sun, no. There is something far more dashing than any sunset, or any celestial body in this universe, and it is the figure before him. Yuta, illuminated by the last breath of the sun that makes his hair glow and looking almost ethereal, is the most beautiful being in this world.

Feeling winded by the impromptu race and the distracting smile of Yuta, he feels his chest constrict but this time he feels odd. Taeyong feels something stuck on his throat, he coughs to get it out covering his mouth with his hands. To his surprise, there is a lone daffodil petal on his palm. He manages to throw the petal on the ground before Yuta turns to him.

“Are you okay?” he says worriedly. Taeyong feels a sense of déjà vu from their previous encounter, but he quickly masks his panic with a comforting smile. He tries to dodge more of his questions but it's getting harder to breathe and he can’t restrain the coughing fit that possesses his body.

He feels his throat get sliced by prickly thorns and tastes iron red. Yuta looks horrified to see the pretty flowers drenched in blood. He coughs in pain as he tries to tell him what he feels before he forgets how to breathe.

_It hurts to know that I will never see your smile in this life. To feel your skin against mine or to even hear your breathing next to mine._

Taeyong struggles to breathe but he gathers the flowers with his remaining strength offering it up to Yuta. Yuta could only kneel before him with panic in his eyes, not knowing what to do.

_You ruined me, I can never look at another without thinking that I will only get the second-best thing after you._

Taeyong wakes up coughing his lungs out with tears on his eyes. He grapples for the dream that escapes him like disappearing ink. He tries to remember every moment that he has with the pretty boy with a pretty smile, but he couldn’t. He looks at his phone and sees 5:30 on the clock, he still has 4 hours before his first class. Taeyong lies on his bed, senseless, for a few minutes with his eyes closed trying to get back to his dream. But reality has overtaken his body and he begins to regain consciousness. With the narrowing of his memory, he grieves at the loss of something, of someone, but he doesn’t remember. When his alarm finally rings he gets pulled to his mundane routine as a college student. Taeyong makes his bed and turns off his LED lights, he gets out of bed with a stretch and a forgotten dream tucked under his bed.


End file.
